Film

The Magician (Tarot Triptych)

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Name: The Magician
Number: 1
Astrology: Mercury
Qabalah: Beth ב

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Chris Gabriel March 12, 2024

Watch his hands - The Magician is putting on a show. Whether he’s holding a wand or juggling all of his tools, he has before him each of the magical weapons that form the suits of the Tarot: a wand, a cup, a blade, and a coin. I am always brought to the phrase “Play with a full deck”. The Magician is doing just that.

In Thoth, he is the Magus. The God Mercury, or Hermes. He has a big smile, and long winged heels. He shines radiant gold. In addition to the four tools of the suits, there is a Phoenix wand and a winged egg, for he is going between all opposites. Behind him is his Caduceus, the serpentine wand, and beneath him is his monkey form and shadow, Thoth Cynocephalus. Mercury effortlessly plays with his tools.

In Rider, we see him noble, robed and handsome. He has an Ourboros, the snake eating its tail for his belt, a magic wand in his hand, and infinity above him. He points to above with his wand, and to below with his left hand. Atop the table are his weapons and a great many flowers fill the bottom of the card.

In Marseille, we are given le Bateleur, a street performer. A mundane character compared to a grandiose Ceremonial Magician or Mercury . Here is a trickster hustling fools with his trade. A figure in a bar or at a fair. This is not a Magician who is going to commune with angels and demons, but a hokey fortune teller with a tacky neon sign.

The Tarot is considered by many occultists to be the first book, one written by Hermes, or under his Egyptian name, Thoth. The God who created writing and magic. So in some ways, this card is a self portrait. 

Mercury is androgynous, all the more so when placed in its alchemical trinity with the Emperor and the Empress - Mercury between Sulphur and Salt.

Mercury is the spectrum between all dualities, and effortlessly flies between them. The Tarot itself is structured by these symbolic dualities, between Fire and Water, Earth and Air, the World and the Heavens. Yet in this card, they are tools or toys to the Magician.

Just as at the beginning of our studies, we are the Fool, as we master our understanding of the Tarot, we become like the Magician. Through understanding, we develop a “full deck” with which we can play.

Qabalistically, this card represents the 2nd path on the Tree of Life, that going between God and Understanding, Beth. Beth is an ideogram of a House. Consider how when playing with a deck one can build a “House of Cards”. This is the realm of the Magician.

When dealt the Magician in a reading, think upon your skills, your abilities, and how you can put them into use. This is a call to use our abilities to shape the world around us, to not be stuck in one place, but to apply our understanding!

The Tarot itself is structured by these symbolic dualities, between Fire and Water, Earth and Air, the World and the Heavens.

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, CARDS

Iggy Pop Playlist

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Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Since forming The Stooges in 1967, Iggy’s career has spanned decades and genres. Having paved the way for ‘70’s punk and ‘90’s grunge, he is often considered “The Godfather of Punk.”

Wherever You Go, There You Are

Questlove Playlist

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Questlove has been the drummer and co-frontman for the original all-live, all-the-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots since 1987. Questlove is also a music history professor, a best-selling author and the Academy Award-winning director of the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.

Film

What is the Tetragrammaton

What is the Tetragrammaton

How Detachment Can Be Loving For All

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Wayland Myers March 7, 2024

Many years ago, I heard a drug rehab counselor say, "Detachment is a means whereby we allow others the opportunity to learn how to care for themselves better.” I felt confused and disturbed. I was a parent. My teenage child’s life and our family were being ravaged by their struggle with drug and alcohol use. Was I being told I shouldn’t try to stop them from using drugs and alcohol? That I shouldn’t try to protect them from themselves or try to control their recovery? I had heard about this “loving detachment” before, and it sounded like a self protective form of abandonment. But this counselor made it sound like a gift. How could that be?

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Petit Livre d’Amour, Pierre Salas. ca. 1500

Over time, I began to understand what the counselor meant. I slowly discovered several mutual benefits that derived from practicing loving detachment when trying to support someone struggling with addiction. Then, I saw that these benefits could be realized in other  situations I found challenging. Like when I was relating to someone who had a chronic illness that required wise self-care to be practiced over long periods of time and I worried they were  failing to do that. Depression, diabetes, attention deficit disorder, and schizophrenia came to  mind. Then I thought, what about people struggling to learn complex life skills like effective study habits, finding a job, managing their personal finances, handling friendships and love  affairs? My interventions in those learning processes sometimes caused more troubles than  they solved. Maybe loving detachment would be helpful there as well. With these expanded  visions, I became very excited about the value of learning to be supportive and lovingly detached at the same time. 

I developed my first understandings of loving detachment at the same time I was developing my first understandings and skills of a communication practice developed by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, PhD., which is called Nonviolent Communication. I found them to share core values and to be mutually complementary. For instance, Nonviolent Communication suggests using compassionate inspiration as a way for people to get their needs met rather  than coercion, manipulation, or demands. Nonviolent Communication highly values  interpersonal respect – all parties granting each other the right to be who and how they are. And Nonviolent Communication encourages everyone to engage in good self-care. These are all parts of loving detachment. The insights and values of Nonviolent Communication have greatly enriched my understanding of how detachment can be loving for all. So, let's take a look at loving detachment.

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“I had heard about this “loving detachment” before, and it sounded like a self protective form of abandonment. But this counselor made it sound like a gift. How could that be?”

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First, a definition: Currently, I consider myself lovingly detached when: I am willing and able to compassionately and without judgment: 

• allow others to be different from me, 

• grant them the dignity of allowing them to be self-directed, 

• sustain an attitude of hopeful, loving-kindness with them. 

When I can do this, what benefits have I discovered? Here are four ways that I believe detachment is loving for my loved ones and four ways I have found it loving for me. 

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Petit Livre d’Amour, Pierre Salas. ca. 1500

I. How detachment is loving for others:  

I. Those I care for might learn to look within and trust themselves for self-direction, including  when and how to ask for help. 

If I refrain from trying to manage their problematic situation, the people I care about may learn something about thinking for themselves, problem-solving, and when and how to ask  for help. They might learn to listen to their feelings and intuitions better, to heed those little voices we all wish we listened to more often. They might learn to better recognize when they want help and how to request it in ways that leave them feeling good rather than embarrassed or ashamed. In short, letting them manage their affairs allows them to draw on their own inner resources instead of mine, and from this direct experience of their abilities, no matter how groping or uncertain, they can build a measure of competence and the experience of one’s competence is the most powerful and natural avenue for building self-confidence, increased self-trust, and self-esteem. 

II. They might learn more about cause and effect. 

My not intervening allows others to have an uninterrupted experience of the cause-and-effect relationship between their actions and the natural consequences of those actions. My uninvited involvement might trigger an unhappy reaction and create a conflict of its own. The risk here is that this generated conflict can become the sole focus of their attention, and the opportunities for them to learn as much as they might from the full and uninterrupted  encounter with their natural consequences becomes diminished or lost by the dust produced by fighting me. 

III. They might experience the motivation to continue on or change. 

Pleasurable and painful experiences often motivate us to repeat what brought satisfaction and change what didn't. We all use this kind of emotional energy to help us move forward and improve the experience of our lives. These motivating energies arise naturally within and feel much better to respond to than the attempts by others to motivate us through guilt, fear, manipulation, or some form of coercion.   

IV. Self-discovery and self-enjoyment might increase. 

If I grant others the freedom to think, feel, value, perceive, etc., as they wish, and they relax because they feel respected and safe, they might discover many new things about  themselves. They might discover what they really like, feel, or think. They might have moments of creative insight that inspire, excite, and encourage them. They might invent new, more satisfying dreams for their lives than ever would have appeared under the constraints of my controlling presence. 

Now, how about the ways loving detachment benefits me? 

II. How detachment is loving for me:  

I. I am relieved of the strain of attempting the impossible. 

At this point in my life, I have concluded that the only thing I might ever be able to control is my attitude toward whatever’s going on. Other humans are free-range chickens, perhaps capable of being influenced but never controlled by me (unless I can physically constrain them, which only controls their location and perhaps limits their behaviour). If I accept my  powerlessness to control the inner lives and wills of others, then I relieve myself of the stress  and strain of attempting what cannot be done. This is a primary way for me to create more  serenity in my life. In fact, if I practice this process deeply enough, I sometimes reach the  point where I form no opinion about what another should do. This is a truly liberated and  refreshing moment for us both. 

II. What other people think of me can become none of my business. 

If I am powerless to control the thoughts, perceptions, values, or emotions of another, then I  can liberate myself from necessarily accepting or reacting to their opinions of me. I just listened to a podcast in which a research neuropsychologist shared an interesting and fun strategy her husband came up with for how to liberate oneself when hearing another share their opinion of you. He said, “Just remember that what they think of you is just a bio-electrical  process happening in their brain.” I love the opportunity to remain detached from the product of that bio-electrical process which that understanding provides. 

III. My attention and energy are freed to focus on improving my own life. 

I have plenty of problem areas in my own life. Obsessing about another’s life is sometimes a way for me to avoid dealing with the pain in mine. If I spend too much time and energy obsessing about another's life, I don't spend enough time focusing on mine. If I do this, my life may stay at its current level of unmanageability or get worse. Loving detachment allows me to invest my energies in my life. 

 IV. I can express my love or caring in ways that bring joy and satisfaction to both. 

When someone I care for is struggling with a problem or suffering emotionally, I usually want to be supportive or helpful. But I want to offer the type of help that would bring me joy to  provide and them joy to receive. One of the ways that I have developed a picture of what this  help could look like is to recall times when caring friends or others assisted me in ways that I enjoyed. What did they do? While showing no sign that they felt responsible for solving my problems, they offered me four things: 

• their compassionate, empathic understanding of how I perceived and felt about my situation, 

• their experiences and learning from similar situations for my consideration,

• their genuine optimism about my abilities to work through my struggles,

• their willingness to help, on my terms, in ways that were congruent with their needs. 

To be offered understanding, companionship, encouragement, and assistance, but not interference, is the most satisfying help I have known. Offering this to others increases both  the joy in my life and my self-esteem. 

My practicing loving detachment provides an opportunity for both of our lives to be  improved. The lives of those I love may be improved because I respect their powers of self care enough to allow them to reap the potential benefits of struggling, learning, and  succeeding on their own. My life is improved because I avoid unnecessary distress, retain  energy for my own use, and offer caring and support in ways that bring me joy. In these ways, loving detachment plays a powerful and rewarding role in helping me to both live and let live.

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Petit Livre d’Amour, Pierre Salas. ca. 1500

III. Deciding if, when, and how:  

How do I go about deciding how I’d like to proceed? Here are some of the things I consider: 

1. Which action, helping or lovingly detaching, do I believe will strengthen my loved one  the most in the long run? This is my primary question. I want to contribute toward  strengthening their well-being in the long run. 

2. Does the "help" I am thinking of providing involve me picking up a responsibility that would normally be theirs, but which they are not performing at the levels I deem best?  Am I remembering for them, organizing for them, planning for them, making peace  for them, apologizing for them, keeping track of something for them, anticipating  consequences for them? It has been my frequent experience that as long as I continue  to handle jobs like these for my loved ones, their level of job performance rarely  improves, and they often resent my interventions. Oh, what fun we can have. 

3. Is the crisis I am tempted to help them with one that has a natural consequence that might be more valuable for them to encounter and deal with than me engaging in an  attempt to mitigate their pain? This decision is also informed by my estimate of the levels of emotional or physical harm they might be exposed to and the level of  capability and recourses they might have at their disposal, should their choices result  in the situation going seriously south. 

In making decisions about if, when, or how to respond or get involved in another’s struggle,  I have found that the best way for me to resolve any uncertainty I have is to ask myself this  question: 

“Which way of responding do I think I will be able to live with the best in the long run?” 

I hope these thoughts and suggestions help you figure out when, how, and how much to help  those you love and to feel more at ease when you lovingly choose to abstain.  

I have not found loving detachment to be painless. I often feel guilt, worry, and doubt. But my suffering is tempered when I believe that by resisting my urge to help, I may be offering the person I love the highest form of love I can. I wish you compassion, clarity, and courage as you navigate your way through these complex waters. 

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Wayland Myers, Ph.D. is a psychologist who writes books and articles on Nonviolent Communication and other applications of compassion. He was introduced to the Nonviolent Communication process in 1986 by its creator Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, and has since used it extensively in his personal and professional lives with profound and deeply valued results.

Tremaine Emory

Film

Pluto in Aquarius: Strange Flows Beyond Man

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(Symbol: the Gift of Thoth Deck)

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Chris Gabriel March 5, 2024

On January 20th, 2023 Pluto entered Aquarius. After 15 years in Capricorn, 15 years of economic chaos and upheaval, we now must brave a transformation in the realm of knowledge. As we enter the new days of this era, let us look at some of the symbols at play.

Pluto- The Headless God
First, let us look at Pluto, or Hades to the Greeks. He is the God of death and the Underworld, the chthonic masculine. His symbol is the bident, a two pronged fork with a circle. I read it as an Acéphale, a headless figure. The head is the conscious ego, and the body is the unconscious. In many ways decapitation is a perfect reading of Pluto’s effect in astrology, the violent introduction of the irrational base drives. The Headless Man is operating solely on his lowest drives. The consciousness that mankind reveres is undone by our true nature. Consider the denial of Pluto the planet as a mirror to the rejection of the Freudian Unconscious. Pluto undoes our seemingly perfect, rational structures and systems with a swift coup de grâce.

Capricorn- The Evil Clown
When Pluto entered Capricorn in late 2008, we saw the Global Financial Crisis kick into gear. Capricorn as the sign of material development and gain was decapitated by Plutonic reality, the scapegoat sacrificed to Hades. This led to 15 years of scams, new schemes for making money online, and a culture obsessed with the “hustle” and the “grind”. In my personal symbology, I came to view Capricorn as an “Evil Clown”, for Capricorn is the Devil, the odd goat. In the zodiacal journey we see the motley, rainbow color of Sagittarius become bloodstained in Capricorn, just like Joseph’s coat of many colors gets covered in goat blood. It is unsurprising then that our cultural fascination with evil clowns like Pennywise and Terrifier were renewed in this time, culminating in people seeing them walking about in 2016. These motifs will gradually pass away as a new era begins and gives way to something even stranger.

Aquarius- The Space Alien
Aquarius is the sign of Science, both social and physical. A sign of the collective and the individual. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius, humanity was engaged in the American and French Revolutions. Pluto brings with it transformations of the social. This sign is that which is “far out”. Aquarius represents distance, both physical and emotional. It is both the impersonal, and the absolute personal. When compared with its opposite sign Leo and its extroversion we see Aquarius is introverted. Energies devoted within oneself come to reach the outside. Aquarius contains duality, it flows both ways through the direction of imagination. Like The Beatles song, it is within you and without you.

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“Technology will advance radically and social movements will become Aquarian: stranger and stranger. The very nature of individual existence will be transformed.”

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In the old days, mystics symbolized Aquarius with an angel. The modern form of this symbol is the alien. The alien phenomenon emerged as the Aeon of Aquarius began and will really kick into high gear over the next 20 years, setting the stage for the next 2000 years. What began as lights in the sky and little green men will become something far more impactful.

Technology will advance radically and social movements will become Aquarian: stranger and stranger. The very nature of individual existence will be transformed. We have grown increasingly alienated as technology has overtaken our lives. I see two distinctly Aquarian reactions developing, one is the Angelic New Age vision of world peace, communal living, universal love. The other is the Alien Transhumanist vision of overcoming biological limitations through technology, virtual reality, and interplanetary travel.

How will our biology grapple with a rapidly changing environment? With the introduction of nonbiological “thinking machines” into our day to day lives? Pluto in Capricorn brought about a stock market crash, Pluto in Aquarius will bring about a total redefining of our relationship with technology, a computer crash. When we restart it, what will have been saved and what will have been lost?

The Aeon- A Little Time
The Aeon corresponds to Pluto. While the card generally refers to the 24,000 year aeonic cycle with its 2000 year months, we can certainly see a microcosmic form in Plutonic eras (10 to 30 years). Massive cultural shifts, advancements and breakthroughs arise on the slow path of Pluto.

The beginning of the Aeon of Aquarius is disputed, but in my estimation it began around 2000 (Y2K), and it will last until 4000. This Aeon will bring about immense technological development and a drastic shift in our understanding of being human. It is very fitting then that we enter the little age of Aquarius on Pluto just as the Great one is getting going. Our actions now will have profound reverberations in the Aeon.

Therefore, let us go farther and farther out from the bounds of tradition, so that we can reach outside, and inside, without fear of what may look back.

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, CARDS

Tyler Cowen Playlist

Tyler Cowen March 4, 2024

Are you confused about what the avant-garde even is these days? If so, the avant-garde has succeeded in taking over your mind. This is how they did it.

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Tyler Cowen is Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. With colleague Alex Tabarrok, Cowen is coauthor of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and cofounder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University.

Wheels of Light

Hannah Peel Playlist

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Mercury Prize, Ivor Novello and Emmy-nominated, RTS and Music Producers Guild winning composer, with a flow of solo albums and collaborative releases, Hannah Peel joins the dots between science, nature and the creative arts, through her explorative approach to electronic, classical and traditional music.

Film

The Fool (Tarot Triptych)

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Name: The Fool
Number: 0
Astrology: Air
Qabalah: Aleph

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Chris Gabriel February 29, 2024

The Fool is green, inexperienced and pure. He carries a bag, and is followed by an animal. A vagabond and his dog, nothing to his name but a backpack, and wandering on the side of the highway. There is the Fool. We know not where he’s going, nor what is in his sack. A symbol of having nothing but infinite potential.

The fool changes across the three decks.

In Marseille, we see the Fool very plainly, he is at his most Human. His dog is tearing at his raggedy pants. He is numberless - the only numberless card in Marseille. He bears his sack, and with his chin up, he walks to the right.

In Rider, the Fool is in a more Noble light. The Sun is shining, he is adorned in a beautiful coat with fine green pants, a clean, and youthful face. He bears a simple sack, and a white flower.

His dog is warning him, for he has his head in the clouds, and is about to walk off the edge of a cliff. He is 0.

In Thoth, we are shown the Fool as a God. He is a Horned God, like Pan, and stands atop a crocodile like the Child God Harpocrates. Spiraling energies flow from him. Rather than a dog, a tiger bites at his leg. His sack is transparent, and we see it filled with coins bearing the symbols of the stars and planets. He is not walking but leaping, splayed out in energetic ecstasy. He is Air, Aleph, and 0.

Across the cards we are given many keys to the nature of the Fool, who is in fact a singular archetype. While we’re looking at these three decks, every tarot deck shows us a face of the singular Fool.

We can experience the Fool physically by blowing a raspberry: by making our mouths into a 0, and blowing out air. You can create a silly sound.

This is the silly nature of Fool, the Creative Nothing. We become like the child: learning how to play with our mouths for the first time, to create.

The fool exists across culture: The ancient tradition of April Fool’s Day, which corresponds to Spring, when nature begins anew. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 4:10 declares “We are fools for Christ’s sake”. In the greatest wisdom expressed by Socrates when he states “I know that I know nothing.”

And perhaps most fittingly for our reading of Tarot cards, William Blake says “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

When dealt this card, we are given a call to adventure, the beginning of a grand new journey, or we are being shown our own silliness, the missteps that we have taken. In truth, these are the same thing, a chance to start again.

The 22 Major Arcana in every tarot is precisely this journey, from foolishness to wisdom. The Fool as zero is there every step of the way. He is at the very beginning when we have nothing, and he is there after all we have learnt.

“When I was a little boy, I had but little wit / It is some time ago, and I've no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live, the more fool am I.”

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, CARDS

Eugene Jarecki

Film

Making Heads or Tails

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Derek DelGaudio February 27, 2024

Last year, I asked ChatGPT to flip a coin and tell me the result. It replied: “As an AI language model, I cannot simulate a random coin flip. Randomness is typically generated using external sources of entropy. However, I can generate a pseudorandom “heads” or “tails” outcome for you using a random number generator if that would be helpful.”

It’s hard to know where to turn when we have questions that extend beyond any field of knowledge. We used to ask the Augurs, the priests who looked at the sky through a frame, waiting for a bird to fly by as an omen or affirmation. This routine satisfied us for a time, but soon our questions outnumbered the birds, and we grew impatient. So we carved our own birds into stone disks, which we tossed to simulate flight. Those disks became cubes with more surfaces for our signs, freeing our questions from binary chains. Then came the cards, so light and so thin, more outcomes than stars in the palm of our hand. We asked more questions well into the night. And it’s through the asking of those questions we learned that nature’s lexicon of mystery is not limited to flying birds or shuffled cards. Mystery is the message.

“Randomness is the closest thing we scientists have to God,” said my friend, the cryptographer who once wrote about the vulnerabilities of physical locks from a computer scientist’s perspective, only to be censured by the Locksmiths of America for unknowingly revealing their secrets. When I told him about the tedious answer the computer gave me after I asked it to flip a coin, he replied, “Machines are designed to repeat themselves. Given the same input, they will always produce the same output. Randomness requires entropy (a measurable state of uncertainty), which is absent from the machine’s environment and antithetical to its purpose. To generate something random, like a coin toss or a password, machines harvest entropy from an outside source. They harvest it from us.” 

Buried in your machine, a nameless program observes the physical phenomena it encounters during the day, and it stores these random events as seeds of entropy: Atmospheric noises, keystrokes, the movement of the mouse, etc. This fluid relationship we have with machines mirrors the making of our own dreams. Our daily experiences sneak into our nights: The sirens outside, the guy who pressed our buttons, the mouse that crossed our path. When we awake, we respond without knowing what we experienced while we were asleep. Just as we live to feed our dreams so that dreams feed into our unconscious decisions, we have ended up living to feed the dreams of machines. We are the unconscious of the algorithm.

Are the machines learning what we need them to know or just telling us what we want to hear? Could it be that saying the right thing at the right time is mastering entropy? Lying is faster than learning. Perhaps the machine dazzles us with the gleam of its screen so we can’t see that everything is dark inside. Perhaps it's us that can’t be trusted.

Today, I asked ChatGPT to flip a coin and tell me the result. It replied: “Tails.” 

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Derek DelGaudio is a writer, director, and magician. DelGaudio created the award-winning theater show and film, In & Of Itself. He wrote the acclaimed book, AMORALMAN, served as the artist-in-residence for Walt Disney Imagineering, and co-founded the performance art collective A.Bandit. He is currently an Affiliate Scholar at Georgetown University and co-conspirator at Deceptive Practices, a creative firm known for designing illusions and providing "Arcane Knowledge on a Need-to-Know Basis.”

Iggy Pop Playlist

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Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Since forming The Stooges in 1967, Iggy’s career has spanned decades and genres. Having paved the way for ‘70’s punk and ‘90’s grunge, he is often considered “The Godfather of Punk.”